I. What changes - news to watch this week

🥊 Showdown in the IL-23 Arena: Eli Lilly’s Omvoh vs. J&J’s TREMFYA in the Battle for IBD Supremacy

Indianapolis, IN – On the day of October 28th, both Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson made a press release on the results of their long-term studies on their respective IL-23 inhibitor drug.

Eli Lilly revealed groundbreaking Phase III trial data for its IL-23 inhibitor, Omvoh (mirikizumab), demonstrating sustained, long-term efficacy in treating both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). This marks a major step for Lilly in the competitive IBD market, positioning Omvoh as the only IL-23p19 inhibitor with multi-year safety and efficacy data across both conditions.

On the same day, Johnson & Johnson announced results for TREMFYA (guselkumab) in CD, showing high clinical response and remission rates with the convenience of a subcutaneous-only regimen. TREMFYA’s simplified dosing may appeal to patients, potentially giving J&J an edge in the emerging IL-23 inhibitor landscape for IBD.

🤺 The Showdown 🥊

Read more about the exit strategy of biotech companies here.

II. What never changes - timeless wisdom

👨🏻‍🎓 A decade after high graduation. What did I learn?

I wrote this reflection in Jun 2023, then forgot about it. Now, reading it in Oct 2024, it hit me hard (in a good way).

This serves as a record of my thoughts ten years after my high school graduation. Maybe I will write another one ten years later. : )

Ten years ago, at the end of June 2013, I graduated from one of the top high schools in my region (CSKPHC in Macau 🇲🇴), not as the top in class as I used to be in primary school (ego flex, I know), but as the third last in class who cheated his chemistry exams in order to graduate. Now, it is safe to say I have achieved things that seemed unimaginable to me a decade ago. So, what did I learn?

Over the past ten years, I have been through many roles, and if I am asked to name one single most important lesson I learned, it is this. Everything is about mentality. You can get what you want if you have a strong mentality. You can crush through challenges, and you will not stop or give up easily. And, in the end, title, experience, expertise, age, and other specs on paper don’t matter as much as how much you want. At 25, my students’ parents, who were thirty (or more) years older than me, gave me their credit cards and let me charge more than $6,000 for the services I sold in a single swipe. I hired people younger and older than me and did many other things that were presumably restricted by the specs on the paper mentioned above. The saying, “When there is a will, there is a way,” is true and more powerful than it has been recognized.

You may be in doubt, so let me present you with a short experiment to illustrate my point. Imagine you are at work, and person A comes to you and says, “Are you okay? You look a bit sick.”. Of course, you will thank her for the question, say you are fine, gladly ignore the thought of being sick, and continue your actions. However, imagine person B comes to you and asks you the same question. Then, person C comes and does the same. This ultimately casts an echo inside you, asking yourself whether you feel sick, like a thick layer of cloud above you that you cannot ignore. Well, then, maybe you will find out that you have a mild headache or not feeling as well as you were before all these caring people approached you.

This happens more than we think in all aspects of our lives. Before my startup idea became an actual thing in an office with customers and employees, streams of discouraging statements and questions doubting the possibilities of such a business idea ran through my brain all the time thanks to not just person A, B, and C, but probably fifty of such people repeatedly casting such clouds on me.

Continue reading here…

III. Book Quotes

Here are some book quotes for you to ponder over the weekend.